


Tattooing the Teacher

by darktensh17



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-06-02
Packaged: 2018-04-02 12:46:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4060549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darktensh17/pseuds/darktensh17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fenris owns a tattoo parlor and his nephew's preschool teacher Garrett Hawke just walked in asking for the most god awful tattoo imaginable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tattooing the Teacher

**Author's Note:**

> Based off the awful au: “You’re my kids Preschool teacher and you just came into my tattoo shop and asked for the craziest tattoo I have ever heard of. Also wow your pain tolerance is extremely low; maybe you shouldn’t even get this thing!"
> 
> I don't know anything about tattoos so sorry about any bad information!

Brow furrowed, Fenris concentrated on finishing up the last of the details on Isabela’s new pin-up girl tattoo. He just had to finish up the red in the lips and the blush, a special request from Isabela to make the girl in the tattoo more innocent looking. When she’d come to Fenris with a picture of a lovely chocolate haired girl, Fenris had been hesitant to take the request but Isabela was one of his best customers and she assured him she had permission from the girl to use her likeness. 

“All done.” Fenris informed her, pulling away and setting his needle gun on the stand and grabbing the cleaning solution to rinse it off and then applying the cream. “You know the process by now, so I’m not going to waste my breath repeating it to you.”

“Maybe I want you to just to hear the sound of your lovely voice.” Isabela joked, jumping off the table and looking at the beauty in the sun dress that he’d just finished on her upper thigh. “She’s absolutely gorgeous, a regular ray of sunshine.” 

Fenris grunted in agreement as he prepared the wrap for over the tattoo. “She is, so long as she doesn’t come in and sue me for using her image. I can’t afford a lawsuit.” Money was tight this month with Leto’s dental bill, the poor kid had a multitude of cavities due to his mother’s negligence and over all lack of care for his health. 

It’d only been a year since Fenris had been granted full custody and paternal rights of his nephew Leto and he was slowly trying to get things in order. The dentist hadn’t wanted to scare Leto or cause him too much pain so they’d agreed on doing all the fillings in two different appointments. The worst had been taken care of not long after Fenris had gotten him; the second appointment was two weeks ago. While it was easier on his wallet to do them in two appointments it still wasn’t cheap, luckily he would get a lot of that money back.

“Second dentist visit huh?” Isabela asked sympathetically, sauntering over and back up on to the table to get her tattoo wrapped. “How is the little guy doing?”

Fenris chuckled remembering Leto’s teary eyes after the last visit. “He’s sworn off sweets for the rest of his life to avoid cavities. Lucky for me he’s quite taken with fruit, particularly apples.”

Isabela was about to reply but was interrupted as the bell over the shop jingled to alert him that someone had just come in, getting up he stuck his head out of the room. “Welcome to Lyrium. I’ll be right with you.” Fenris said to the talk dark haired bearded man who had entered. Turning back to Isabela he snapped a picture of Isabela’s new tattoo before wrapped it up and gave her a free tube of the cream that they used. “I’ll bring him to the shop sometime so that you can fawn over him.”

“I’ll hold you to that! He’s such a sweet little thing! I’m so glad he wasn’t affected by all of Varania’s shit; he looks more like you than her anyway.” Isabela pointed out, jumping off the table again and heading out of the room, Fenris following close behind her. “Everyone says so.”

Fenris nodded at her words, having heard that often. He made his way behind the counter and began ringing up the cost of Isabela’s tattoo. “He may not be mine by birth, but I consider him my son and so does the law.” Considering he’d never had any inclination to having kids, Fenris loved having Leto around, even if it wasn’t always easy. “I could not imagine life without Leto anymore.”

The bearded man who had been looking at the tattoo art on the wall turned toward them then. “Are you talking about Leto Mercy?” He asked suddenly, walking over to the counter. Fenris eyed him mistrustfully but nodded in confirmation. “He’s one of my preschoolers.” 

“You are Mr Garrett?” Fenris asked with a raised eyebrow, never actually having met the man, it was always his co-teachers Anders that Fenris dealt with, much to his chagrin. The man liked to lecture him to no end about anything he could think of bringing up. Fenris suspected it stemmed from the fact that he’d told the man he didn’t like cats the first time he met him. “Leto speaks highly of you.”

Garrett grinned easily at that; he had an easy smile stretched his face and lit up his eyes, it was visible even under his impressive beard. “He’s always talking about his uncle Fen, although I’ve noticed recently he sometimes refers to you as papa Fen.” The comment caused Fenris to flush happily; he’d never dreamed that Leto would see him as his father and not just a father figure. “I can tell that he’s really happy and he loves you a lot.” 

“Heh, papa Fen, that’s too cute Fenris.” Isabela teased, passing him the money she owed him for the tattoo. “I’ll let you and Mr Garrett more on to business.” She waggled her eyebrows at that, giving Fenris thumbs up and motioning to Garrett. “Have fun boys~”

Fenris rolled his eyes as she left, glancing at Garrett out of the corner of his eyes and conceding to himself that Isabela’s not so subtle hint about Garrett’s attractiveness. “Ignore her, Isabela can be a handful.” 

Garrett, who’d turned to watch Isabela walk out only laughed. “I’ve got friends like that to; my co-worker Anders can be quite the handful at time. You’ve likely dealt with him since I haven’t actually seen you around.” 

“Ander and I are acquainted.” He couldn’t quite keep the annoyance at the mention of Anders out of his voice, which caused Garrett to laugh. 

“You’ve definitely met then. You either like Anders or you want to throttle him. Or if you’re talented like me it’ll be a bit of both.” 

Like his smile, Garrett’s laugh was very pleasant. “I do not doubt that.” Clearing his throat, Fenris focused on what Garrett was doing in his tattoo shop. “So is there something that I can help you with Garrett?”

“Oh yeah! I came in for a tattoo! My sister Bethany drew me the design as a joke but I’m going to get it for her birthday gift.” Garrett pulled out his phone and held it up to Fenris.

Fenris blinked looking at the familiar dark haired girl in the same picture he’d used as reference to design Isabela’s tattoo. He wondered just what Garrett would think if he found out that Fenris had just finished tattooing her likeness on another woman’s body. “Your sister is very pretty?” He offered, seeing nothing but the young woman in the picture.

Garrett turned his phone back to himself, grinning sheepishly. “Yeah she is. Sorry wrong picture. He wiped his phone and held it up again, this time it was a picture of a badly drawn mabari. “Here it is!”

“You want that as a tattoo?” Fenris asked incredulously. 

“On my arse!” Garrett affirmed proudly. “It’s for an inside joke.” 

Fenris felt a headache coming on, he didn’t believe in doing bad tattoos, but it was the customer’s body, and he couldn’t afford to turn down any jobs given the current economy. “I’ll need to do a print out so I can sketch it on to the transfer paper; if you’ll hand me your phone?” When Garrett gave him the phone again, Fenris plugged it into the printer and printed out a copy of the photo. “This shouldn’t take me too long to do. If you’ll wait in the lounge there’s coffee and possibly some cookies left over.” Donnic had dropped them off earlier, it was his day off and with his wife Aveline working he’d had nothing better to do with his time than bake. Fenris had a small bag of the oatmeal raisin tucked away to bring home and give to Leto as a treat. 

“Alright!” Whistling to himself, Garrett plopped himself into one of the plush chairs in the waiting room, grabbing a magazine and a cooking and settling himself down to wait. 

Shaking his head at the man’s cheerfulness, Fenris headed into his work room and traced the design on to the transfer paper. With no offence to Garrett’s sister, the drawing was absolutely horrible and only vaguely recognizable as a mabari. Why anyone would want that on their ass Fenris had no clue, but it wasn’t his body so he had no say in it.

When he finished up he went out to call Garrett back to his work room. “Left or right?” He asked, after having Garrett lie on the table pants down past his ass, a sheet under him to prevent the need for too much clean up He dug out a disposable razor and shaving cream wondering if he wouldn’t need to charge extra for the shaving. The man had a nice ass but it was very harry, as was the rest of him. A trait Fenris found rather attractive in men, given that he himself had very little hair other than on his head and some around his privates. 

Garrett stared at in confusion for a moment, looking at him as though he’d grown a second head. Fenris looked at him with a raised eye brow and gestured to his ass cheeks. “Oh! Uh the left one, cause I consider that cheek number two and she was born after Carver.” 

Fenris assumed that was supposed to mean something to Garrett but it was useless information to him. Using a damp cloth he wet the hair on Garrett’s ass, applied the shaving cream and set to work. “Generally the customer does this before they come in. I’m charging you extra for this.” 

Garrett laughed heartily at that. “I’d pay the price of the tattoo just to have a good looking guy like you touching my ass.” There was no embarrassment in his words as he spoke, “Even if you are one of my student’s parents.”

“I would prefer not speaking about Leto in a situation such as this.” The water basin he had next to him to rinse the razor was covered in hair after just a few swipes of the razor. Luckily this tattoo was no bigger than his fist and wouldn’t require the entire cheek to be cleared. 

“Yeah I guess not.” There was a moment of silence before Garrett spoke again. “So do you do this often?”

Fenris finished up the last of the shaving and pushed the cart with the water bowl and razor to a far corner. “Shave and tattoo a stranger’s ass?”

Even though he wasn’t looking up at Garrett as he set the stencil down and applied it, he could picture the goofy grin he would have on his face. “Or look at strangers asses in general yeah.” 

“No, I prefer having strangers stare down at my ass.” Fenris’ hands stilled on Garrett’s ass, his face quickly reddening as he registered what he’d just said. Desperately he hoped that he’d been quiet or incomprehensible enough that Garrett had not heard them When the man chortled in delight though, he knew those hopes were in vain. “I did not mean to say that, it was entirely inappropriate and you should forget you heard it.” He hissed, grabbing his tattoo gun and dipping it in the black ink.

“I’m not sure I can ever forget that, especially not with the mental image that came with it. Do those tattoos go all the way down by the way?”

If it were anyone else asking him Fenris would have kicked them out right then and there, whether or not he needed the funds badly. Despite how obvious Garrett was with his flirting, Fenris did not mind it so much, particularly when he would never have reciprocated that flirting himself. “The only way you’re ever going to find out is if you see them yourself.” 

“Oooohhh?” Garrett drawled inquisitively and with plenty of interest. Anything further he was about to say was momentarily drowned out by the sound of the tattoo gun starting and Garrett’s own cry of pain almost immediately after. Fenris stopped the gun and looked up at him incredulously; he hadn’t even done anything yet. “I’m a little skittish about needles.” Garrett defended, looking like a giant cowering dog. “Just warn me before you start anything.” 

Considering Garrett’s size and over all level of what some would consider manliness, Fenris would not have thought him to be someone who was skittish. Then again he’d had large men pass out while he was tattooing them, and he’d heard stories from Aveline about police officers who had phobias of needles. “Dully noted.” 

Turning the machine on again, Fenris brought it down to begin the tattooing when Garrett shrieked and flinched away. Sighing Fenris put the gun back on the cart and moved his chair and turned to face Garrett. “Are you certain you wish to go through with this? You seem to be,” he tried to think of an appropriate word that wouldn’t insult Garrett, “hesitant to get this done.” 

“I really want to do this!” Garrett affirmed, looking like a kicked puppy. “This is the perfect gift and joke all rolled into one.”

Fenris pursed his lips in thought, trying to come up with an alternative for Garrett because there was no way the man was going to go through with this. Furthermore Fenris didn’t want to do the hideous tattoo; it was an insult to his skills and to the art of tattooing. “When is your sister’s birthday? That is what you said this was for correct?”

Garrett nodded, “It’s in a week.” 

“How about I sketch it on with permanent marker, it will was off if you wash it right, but will stay until you need it. This way you do not have to go through the pain and I can show my face at Leto’s preschool without recalling how I tattooed your posterior.” Fenris reasoned, praying Garrett would take him up on the offer. “And to pay me back for shaving your ass you can buy me dinner.” 

Brightening at the suggestion, Garrett nodded eagerly and Fenris suspected it was more at the prospect of dinner than getting away from the tattoo gun. “Alright but you have to let me at least pay you for your time. I’ll give you fifty bucks for putting up with me and you have to let me take you to a nice restaurant and not as repayment, I want an actual date.”

In spite their association still far, or perhaps because of it, Fenris easily agreed to a date. He should have felt some guilt for accepting the money on top of the date, but he was not in a position to turn it down, and he had worked for it just not fully. “Very well, you may pick me up Friday.” Grabbing a sharpie he wrote down his number and address on the transfer paper before handing it to Garrett. “Now stay still, I want this to be as clean looking as possible.” Leaning closed he set to work on making a permanent marker masterpiece, or as much as was possible, on Garrett’s ass.


End file.
